Tony Clement: 'How can I do my job in an excellent way at less cost to taxpayers?'

Treasury Board President Tony Clement spoke Saturday morning at the Manning conference. What follows are his prepared remarks:

I am pleased and honoured for the opportunity to be here today to speak with everyone gathered on a subject that is very close to my heart – and one that is top of mind for many people – the nature of the relationship between citizens and their government. The particular topic is “facilitating economic recovery,” which is what people most care about these days. But how government operates in this space tells one a lot about how citizen engagement occurs in the Canadian context.

First, a little ancient history: When Preston Manning first came to Ottawa as an elected Member of Parliament and leader of the Reform Party, one of the main causes he fought for was to make government a better servant of the people.

Back then, Mr. Manning envisioned a new role for government. It was a vision born out of a frustration: government was growing in size, cost and complexity. Taxes were high, productivity within government low, and deficits were either not tackled at all or else were met with even higher burdens on the taxpayers as the only solution.

It was this that first drew me to politics as well. The statist non-solutions of the Trudeau era convinced me at an early age that what Canada needed then most of all was freedom from the dead hand of government. When I decided to run for a seat on the Ontario Legislature in 1995, it was to help counter the baneful effects of NDP Premier Bob Rae: one in 10 Ontarians on social assistance and 10,000 jobs lost per month. It was out of the ashes of Bob Rae’s Ontario that the Common Sense Revolution, in which I was a participant, was born.

During my time in the Ontario Cabinet, I – along with colleagues like Ministers Baird and Flaherty — set to work to change this. And we made great progress.

Meanwhile, Mr. Manning’s leadership as Official Opposition in Ottawa had faced similar challenges and worked for similar ends.

We both wanted, needed, to change the relationship between the government and the governed — to make a smaller government and a bigger citizen. We all recognized that there was a role for government but we recognized Canadians as intelligent, entrepreneurial people, and our ambitions and goals for Canada would be best met when the energy and dynamism of the people of Canada were encouraged to flourish freely – and not be restrained.

We knew that country was created through the hard-work and sacrifice of countless people who rolled up their sleeves and made the Canada they envisioned … not by a government decree but by their own individual and collective actions.

As PM Harper signalled in his World Economic Forum speech in January, a dynamic, growing Canadian economy will require governments at all levels to relearn to spend within their means and find a path to sustainable and relevant government services. Indeed, as PM Harper indicated, our choices as a country involve far more than a balanced budget. They involve whether Canada will develop the means to succeed in a world where the emerging economies are growing at a far faster rate than European and American economies.

And so, when I was asked by Preston to speak here, he told me he wanted the theme to be about a government that facilitates. I immediately said yes. Both because one doesn’t say no to Preston Manning and also because it is a topic I feel so passionate about. How to change government, how to transform it to be more sustainable and efficient and responsive, and how to do so in a modern political setting, actually are key components of my job as President of the Treasury Board.

I think our current government, the Harper government, has made key progress on many fronts. Today I’m going to talk about three of them directly related to my role:

First, how we have made government more open with important measures including the Federal Accountability Act, as well as our Open Government initiative;

Second, how we are actively working to cut red tape and ease the burdens on businesses to help create jobs and operate more efficiently;

And last but not least, how we are tackling the deficit by ensuring that our government – like millions of Canadians across the country – lives within its means.

OPEN GOVERNMENT

So first, Open Government. Open Government assists Canadians to not only learn about, and participate in government activities. But it also has the potential to fire up private sector innovation and entrepreneurialism by helping in the creation of new products using government data and information.

Last spring we launched Open Government through three main streams.

Open Data, which is about offering Canadians Government data in a more useful format to reuse in innovative ways.

(Examples: Environment Canada data or municipal transit data.)

Open Information, which is about proactively releasing information, including information on government activities, to a broader reach of Canadians on an ongoing basis.

And Open Dialogue, which is about giving Canadians a stronger say in Government policies and priorities, and using Web 2.0 technologies to expand citizen engagement with government.

By tapping into the ideas and talents of our citizens, I believe we can be more responsive to meeting their needs.

In fact, earlier this winter, I held the first-ever Twitter Townhall in the federal government as part of our Open Government consultation. Canadians gave us some great suggestions. We tore down the walls between citizens and their government and had a very real – albeit at 140 characters at a time – conversation, and it is something I am certain that will occur more frequently in the near future.

Dialoguing outside our everyday government box is crucial, because government isn’t the expert on everything. We must solicit the input of our citizens because we want their engagement, we need them to keep building Canada.

That is why I am excited about the prospects of crowdsourcing.

These are great examples of government being an enabler, getting out of the way of citizens and letting society solve their own problems. What can be more fiscally conservative?

Open Government will strengthen transparency and accountability in government, and is essential to our nation’s economic success and innovation. I’m a true believer in this, so expect more to come.

FREEING BUSINESS TO SUCCEED (Cutting Red Tape)

This brings me to my second point, cutting red tape. A government that truly facilitates is a government that ensures its people, businesses and communities in Canada have the tools they need to succeed.

I believe red tape impedes economic productivity by taking up precious time and resources, and curbs the entrepreneurial spirit. As a former small business owner myself, I’m well aware of the cost and burden of red tape.

Cutting red tape helps business focus on what they do best: sustain the economic recovery by creating jobs and generating wealth.

It also spurs innovation by leaving a clear regulatory picture for entrepreneurs, and a marketplace that is more welcoming and easier to understand.

Prime Minister Harper set out to realize all of these benefits when he set up the Red Tape Reduction Commission.

And as a sign of our commitment, I recently announced that we are taking action to implement a “One-for-One” Rule to control administrative burden on business. This means that any new regulation will need to be offset by getting rid of an old regulation of greater or equal burden. And there are more announcements coming on how we intend to reduce the regulatory burden in many other areas.

This is just one example of how we are helping businesses grow and invest for the future.

Another is our Government’s commitment to working towards a more streamlined, more efficient and more rational regulatory system with the USA.

Canada and the United States share one of the largest trading partnerships in the world; an estimated $1 billion in trade crosses the border every day; this is a testament to our geographic circumstances yes, but is also indicative of our close ties, our mutual values and also to the enduring legacy for peace and cooperation that free and open trade nurtures.

But sometimes regulatory rules become stale or redundant, and can seriously get in the way of doing business. And we don’t want that.

That is why, last year, Prime Minister Harper and President Obama announced the creation of the Regulatory Cooperation Council or RCC.

The RCC is currently developing a joint action plan to align regulatory approaches in a range of sectors for both Canada and the United States. The RCC will make it easier for businesses on both sides of the border to do business, to increase trade and create jobs and growth.

I’m looking forward to overseeing these objectives and the RCC, as the reporting Minister.

REDUCING THE DEFICIT

Which brings me back to my third and final point. Throughout our history, Canadians and their governments have learned valuable lessons from economic cycles. While stimulus measures are sometimes needed in particular situations, the iron law of economics apply to our country’s’ economic health and welfare: government overspending with no plan to balance leads to declining growth, higher taxes and ultimately jobs lost to more competitive and healthier jurisdictions.

Today, most Canadians understand the necessity of reducing the deficit and returning to fiscal balance as soon as practicable, finding savings within government spending, and taking targeted actions when necessary to support the recovery.

In the 2011 Budget that followed the May federal election, the Next Phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan, we announced our plan to return to a balanced budget while keeping taxes low.

As Treasury Board Minister, in order to find savings, what I have learned is that we have to do more than rely on episodic strategic reviews. We have Budgets every year. For the past several years, we’ve also had strategic reviews which involve cost cutting and finding savings in selected departments and government activities. It is difficult, but not impossible, to get into every nook and cranny of expenditure in government this way. And there are a lot of nooks and crannies!

But, some savvy observers may ask, isn’t that day to day cost management job precisely the task of Treasury Board? Isn’t that my job as President of the Treasury Board? The answer is yes — and no. Yes, in the sense that Treasury Board — a committee of Cabinet — is historically the place to review the particulars of departmental spending, pursuant to a Budget initiative or a Cabinet direction. But it doesn’t go searching for savings outside of that mandate. I’m not saying it should carry on as business as usual: indeed it should have greater tools and better governance to review Treasury Board Submissions in a more effective way. I’m considering these reforms presently.

But what we have to do as well is to ingrain this idea of efficient and constrained use of tax dollars on a day- to-day basis, at every level of the bureaucracy.

If you take nothing else from my talk this morning, please take this: we are working to change the culture in official Ottawa from one of spending enablers to one of cost containers. Every one in the Government should get out of bed every morning, not only thinking “How can I do my job to the best of my ability?” but also asking “How can I do my job in an excellent way at less cost to the taxpayers?”

How? Well first by changing the incentives and rewards. And by changing the internal governance and accountability that should be felt at every level. This is a root-and-branch shift in collective and individual thinking. It won’t occur overnight, but it needs signals from politicians like me that this new thinking is both advantageous and necessary. You’ll hear more from me about these reforms in the months ahead.

We will face resistance, I know. Sustainable services by the right-sized public service should be uncontroversial goals. Unfortunately, public sector union bosses, working hand-in-glove with the NDP Opposition, only want to perpetuate the status quo. Their only solutions seem to be: hire more, tax more, spend more.

Ladies and gentlemen: this is both irresponsible and unsustainable. This stand pat approach by the unions and the NDP will actually translate into mediocre public services, at high cost, to a frustrated public with empty wallets.

Suffice to say, we will resist their non-solutions, even as they continue their personal attacks and well-funded campaigns.

Let me conclude my remarks today with one final observation about our need for continued economic growth and jobs in these challenging times.

Around the world runaway government spending, reckless borrowing, and unchecked deficits have thrown economies into turmoil and led some countries to impose harsh austerity measures to try and stop the economic decline.

The United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Italy, and Greece, for example, have imposed severe restraints on all government spending for the next eight years.

Some other measures they’ve taken include tax hikes, pension annulments, and slices taken out of critical programs like healthcare.

For many countries even that won’t be enough; these cuts will leave their economies with a debt-to-GDP ratio that is four times higher than Canada’s.

Over the years, Canadians have learned that chronic deficits are a mortgage on our future. Chronic deficits create higher taxes, less opportunity and less freedom for our children and our grandchildren.

Ultimately, they squander the opportunities that have been bestowed upon us in this blessed and special land.

That’s why we must stick with a low-tax plan for jobs and growth — a plan that has been working and has already served Canadians well.

I believe Canadians can overcome any challenge. We always have — as long as we never lose faith in ourselves.

As Winston Churchill said when he addressed our Parliament during the bleakest days of the Second World War, we have not journeyed all this way across the mountains, across the Prairies, across the centuries, because we’re made of sugar candy!

Freedom, hard work and sacrifice. They have got us to where we are today. And they will get us to where we need to go.